Internationalization and transformation of the research landscape: Some avenues to apprehend significant challenges for RAM

Abstract

First and foremost, I would like to thank the selection committee members who appointed me Editor-in-Chief of Recherche et Applications en Marketing (RAM) for their trust. It is a great responsibility to succeed colleagues who have managed the journal so well and contributed to what it has become. I would also like to thank the previous editorial team for their constant support during the handover and the French Marketing Association for their support. Last year, RAM celebrated its 35th anniversary. Former editors-in-chief were invited to talk about their experience or discuss their vision of the future. They recalled the many challenges they faced. They had to establish a new journal and help a young discipline become more scientific (Jallais, 2021). They had to “instill a research spirit in line with international standards” (Pras, 2021: 78) and impose a path of scientific rigor while maintaining the journal’s openness (Pras, 2021). The objectives that the founders set out have been achieved in many respects. The articles published are of great scientific rigor and cover many subjects in marketing, consumer behavior, and Consumer Culture Theory. The journal contributes to theoretical and methodological renewal by regularly publishing “reviews” and “new perspectives” concerning the advances of our discipline. The service provided to authors is a significant concern: the average time to render decisions is relatively short, and most of the evaluations given by the critical reviewers are of high quality. However, we should take nothing for granted. RAM is a generalist journal that still has a very national image (Brée, 2021), and both the environment of research and society are under going profound changes (Özçağlar-Toulouse, 2021). Therefore, in this first editorial, I wish to emphasize two challenges that RAM already faces, which may have practical consequences on authors’ and reviewers’ work. The first challenge regards the internationalization movement. The second relates to essential transformations in the research landscape. In particular, I will touch on the ethical aspects raised by the open science movement and the questions about the purpose of research in marketing.